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Sep 24 2014


Anna Abelson speaks at the International Luxury Hotel Association Fast Forward 2020 Conference in Washington D.C.

The International Luxury Hotel Association held the Fast Forward 2020 Conference Sept. 22-23, 2014 at the Gaylord National Convention Center in Washington D.C.

The ILHA is the luxury hotel industry’s biggest influencer, reaching over 300,000 hospitality professionals through its media channels and publications. ILHA brings together Industry experts and thought leaders to answer the greatest challenges facing hotel business today, with a purpose of improving service standards, creating a global forum for communication between luxury hoteliers and promoting innovation. The conference agenda highlighted future trends for the luxury hotel industry, social media marketing, online reputation management best practices and other key topics.

Anna Abelson, Managing Director of Global’s Travel & Tourism Practice, spoke at the panel “Preparing for New Leaders in Luxury Foreign Travel (Latin America, Russia CIS and China)

According to Anna “while visitation and tourism receipts from emerging BRIC economies continue growing, the industry has been paying close attention to trends and opportunities of these lucrative markets. Therefore, insights and expert opinions of industry professionals vis-a-vis the impact of political situation on development of inbound and outbound tourism becomes more crucial. Understanding of cultural nuances remains a key component for travel marketers in reaching and building loyalty with BRIC travelers, the most dynamically growing segments”

“Preparing for New Leaders in Luxury Foreign Travel” proved to be a dynamic discussion on the luxury travel trends of travelers from the BRIC countries ”, said Barak Hirschowitz, president of International Luxury Hotel Association. “We were fortunate to have Anna Abelson as one of our experts, who shared her in depth knowledge of customer behavior inbound to the US, how hotel marketers can attract more Russian and CIS business to their properties, and some key insights into what motivates this sector.”

The white paper on the session will be available later this year.